In his review of the state of the economy, Biti highlighted that revenue has been underperforming to the tune of US$30 million per month. As a result, a massive US$400 million is required to plug the revenue gap and hopefully bring the smiles back on the faces of government workers numbering about 246 000. In order to get the additional revenue, Treasury has pinned its hopes on the Mines Ministry, saying it must pay both the outstanding and future revenue arising from the sale of Marange diamonds.

Judging by the tone of the statement, one can easily conclude that there is no longer collective responsibility in government. All there is now is the unhelpful blame game between ZANU-PF ministers and their colleagues from the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations.

In fact, it is the blame game between the MDC factions and ZANU-PF that has contributed the most to the current state of affairs.

As far as the Finance Ministry is concerned, the buck should stop with the Ministry of Mines. Biti's beef with Obert Mpofu's Ministry did not start last week. Ever since he became Finance Minister in February 2009, he has been voicing concern over poor revenue flows from companies extracting diamonds from the controversial Marange fields in Manicaland Province.

The biggest culprit, according to Biti, has been Anjin.

His view, which is shared within the MDC-T, is that the ZANU-PF side of the inclusive government could be sabotaging the Ministry of Finance to make it appear as if Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's labour-backed party has failed the electorate and therefore set it on a confrontational path with its allies and voters as the nation trudges towards make-or-break elections sometime next year. The MDC-T suspects that the revenue could either be going towards funding a parallel government or that there could be leakages within the system depriving government of millions of United States dollars.

The Ministry of Mines has vehemently denied these accusations in the strongest of terms, falling short of calling for the examination of Biti's head.

Mpofu has previously defended diamond miners operating in Marange saying they were giving Treasury what was due to them and wondered at the source of the discrepancies between his figures and those captured by Treasury.

Because of the finger-pointing, the Finance Ministry has been pushing for the enactment into law of the Diamonds Bill. The Bill, which has been held up in bureaucratic sloth, seeks to enhance transparency in the marketing of diamonds by giving the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) unfettered access into the entire value chain of diamonds from mining, marketing, to distribution and collection of the revenue for the fiscus.

Currently, ZIMRA merely receipts remittances of royalties collected by the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe from the sale of minerals and cannot verify throughput of extracted minerals.

But even if the Bill is to be passed into law, it will still not be the panacea to Biti's problems.

Until 2000, the country's National Budget has always been supported through foreign aid and balance of payments support (BoP) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and other multilateral financing agencies.

However, ever since the IMF pulled the plug on the country, Zimbabwe has been forced to rely on internally-generated resources at a time its economy is still in the intensive care.

It is also not a secret that foreign direct investment (FDI) has declined to the barest minimum due to years of conflict, corruption and mismanagement of the country's economy thereby worsening the liquidity crisis rattling the financial markets.

To make matters worse, the import bill has been growing at an exponential rate not matched by the country's ability to export.

Key exports have also been experiencing challenges of late. For example, prices of diamonds have suffered a huge knock due to poor international prices. The same goes for platinum prices.

Without the resumption of BoP support, improved FDI inflows and enhanced exports, Zimbabwe's revenue inflows will continue to underperform. But instead of confronting the elephant in the room - the Zimbabwe crisis that has sucked in the Southern African Development Community and the African Union - our politicians think they can get away with it by simply apportioning blame on others.

The blame game is never going to put food on the tables of the civil servants who are not only clamouring for a 13th cheque this year but are also mobilising for an industrial action because of the government's failure to improve their salaries and working conditions.

Traditionally, the government has always paid civil servants a bonus around November/December. Any departure from this practice will further infuriate the civil servants and galvanise their demands for a salary increase.

The blame game is never going to create jobs and improve the standards of living among Zimbabweans, the majority of whom are wallowing in abject poverty.

All these multi-faceted issues confronting the inclusive government cannot be resolved by pointing the middle finger at each other. Similary, no amount of strike action, no matter how important it is for ordinary men and women to put pressure on government, can resolve these issues, which require that the economy performs first.

We have seen this finger-pointing between Energy Minister Elton Mangoma and his colleagues in ZANU-PF over the Chisumbanje ethanol project; between Webster Shamu and his colleagues in the MDC-T over the reconstitution of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe board and between Mpofu and Industry and Commerce Minister, Welshman Ncube over New Zim Steel. The list is endless.

With the agricultural season fast approaching, the pressure on Treasury will be quite unbearable. As revealed by the Finance Minister, government also needs about US$130 million to finance the 2012/13 agricultural season and these funds are not yet in place.

Resources are also required to fund a mini-general election to fill the 28 vacant seats in Parliament and over 168 vacant local government seats. Additional resources would also be required to fund the referendum for the new constitution and the harmonised elections to retire the inclusive government. With the country's economic prospects remaining bleak due to high unemployment levels, low foreign investment, the lack of liquidity as well as low capacity utilisation in the productive sectors, Zimbabweans are looking for pragmatism to end their troubles.

The blame game, as far as they are concerned, is a sure sign that those they elected to lead them are running short of ideas.